Tis' Merry World We Live In
by Sunfire7845
Summary: Being in charge of a high school band is never an easy task for Grace. So when one of her band-mates picked up a book on the ground, and young men proclaiming themselves to be nations popped out of THAT book, well, life is going to get interesting now eh?


**Hello everyone! XxDarkangelx here with her first Hetalia fanfiction! Well, techinically speaking, I wrote a crossover before too, but meh.**

**So, this is loosely based off Atama Ga Kuru Teru's globe fic "World is Ours" in which the nations come out of a globe keychain. However, other than that idea, this fic doesn't share anything else in common with that fic. And the nations don't come out of a globe keychain either, they come out of a book which someone (spoiler blocked by America's hamburgers).**

**And to the people who stumbled upon this fic expecting romance, shipping and some fluff, sorry to disappoint you guys out there, but the main part of this fic doesn't deal in that kind of stuff. Sure, there might be some romance and fluff, but this fic has a plot, and it's a pretty suspenseful one at that. And they're bad guys in here too. But Fanfiction only let me pick two categories so... /slaps herself for always making mysterious plots.**

**Anyway, enjoy the fic~! I hope you'll like it! *bows* And I apologise for any grammar, spelling mistakes and typos.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything in here, except for the plot and my OCs.**

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><p>Chapter 1- The Book<p>

It was night. The only lights that were visible at that time were the occasional lighted window from a few houses in the neighbourhood and the stars twinkling above in the inky sky.

Below that same sky, in that very same peaceful neighbourhood, a black sedan lay idle besides a small park. The engine made almost no noise at all as the occupants in the sedan impatiently waited for the package they had come from so far to collect.

Four men sat in the sedan, each and every one of them wearing black suits, black ties and dark glasses which will hide their identities from the one whom they were waiting for. A bottle of champagne lay unopened in an ice tub on a small folded table set up in the middle of the sedan's wide passenger area, complete with five wine glasses which stood delicately on the white tablecloth.

After a few more minutes had passed, one man spoke up. "He's late." the man said in a monotone. Unlike the others, he was smoking a cigar, occasionally blowing small puffs of smoke into the air. He wore a golden ring embedded with several precious stones, the light from a small built-in lamp illuminating the stones.

As soon as the words left his mouth, an urgent knocking on the sedan's door alerted the occupants witinin of their visitor. The man sitting next to the door opened it, and a young man stumbled in.

The man's eyes were wild, and his hair was in an utter mess. His supposed smart clothing was also torn in many places, and a thin line of blood trickled slowly from his mouth, But the men in the sedan were not in the least interested in his attire. They were more interested in the briefcase he was clutching tightly to his chest, hugging it like it was a bar of pure gold.

They had paid millions in deposit for what was contained within that briefcase.

The man who was smoking took out the cigar from his mouth, and grinded it into the ashtray next to him. Finally, he spoke, his expression unreadable. "Is it in there?"

"Yeah." The young man replied, using the back of his hand to wipe away the blood from his face. "It wasn't as easy as I thought though." There was a slighly accusing tone in his voice, as though it was the black suited men's fault for not telling him.

"Naturally." Another man in the sedan said sardonically, twirling a small necklace made out of jade ine his fingers absentmindedly. "No one said it was easy wrestling them into the book. If we hadn't had given you the proper instructions, you wouldn't even be sitting here in the first place."

The young man gulped.

"Now," the man who'd been smoking said softly. "Let us see that book."

The young man's grip on the briefcase didn't loosen. On the contrary, it became even tighter. "Show me the cash first." he demanded.

Wordlessly, the other two man in the sedan who'd not spoken yet slid out two identical briefcases from under their leather seats. In unison, they opened the briefcases. Wards of cash, arranged neatly row by row, were stacked up on each other. The smell of new bank notes filled the entire sedan, making the eyes of the young man widen.

"Ten million in each one." The same man said after a while, letting the sight of the cash sink into the young man. "Is that enough?"

The young man was still not satisfied. "That book is worth a lot more than this." He countered bluntly.

The man sighed and leaned back into his seat. The boy sure was a greedy one, he mused. He nodded at the man next to him, who instantly brought out another briefcase and opened it. There was more cash in it, an uncountable amount of one hundred dollar bills bundled and stuffed together into one briefcase.

The young man leaned forward, his eyes filled with what was undeniably greed. "And how much is in this one?" he asked.

"Another twenty million." The first man said smugly. The young man was starting to realise that he was the leader of them all, since he was the one doing most of the talking. "Is that enough to cover the expenses?"

"Fine." The young man said, almost rubbing his hands in glee. With this amount of money, he could finally get that new car he'd always wanted to buy... However, he didn't trust these men. They were reputed to be very rutheless, and prone to cheating their employees. "But we trade at the same time. Throw the briefcases with the money in it here to my side, and I'll throw mine over to yours."

"Deal." The other said, a small smile quirking at the edge of his lips. "Get the cash ready, Magnus."

The two sides tensed for a second. The man called Magnus held the briefcases with the cash, weighing them in his hands while the young man's grip on his own briefcases loosened. At the same moment, both sides threw their own briefcases over to the other.

The man in charge caught the briefcase, whereas at the same moment the young man caught the threww briefcases thrown at him. Greed quickly overcame the young man's common sense, and he immediately opened the first briefcase to count the cash.

At that moment, a sound very much like the crack of a whip rang out and echoed in the sedan. The young man lurched forward, a surprised and betrayed look on his face. His hands were frozen in the middle of counting his hard-earned cash, and his eyes were blank. Blood was starting to stream out of a small, neat hole which which hadn't been there a few seconds ago in the middle of his forehead. His body slumped forward slowly onto the floow of the sedan, blood pooling around it and seeping into the carpeted floor of the sedan.

The man in charge nodded his approval to the man sitting next to him, whose only response was to pocket his still smoking gun into its secret pocket in his coat.

Carefully, the man in charge zipped the briefcase open, expecting to see the book that he'd waited so long for... the book that would give him almost unlimited power to control the world at his own whims... He'd paid billions, killed many men and sacrificed a lot of money for this particular pet project of his. Finally, after so long, the book was in his hands...

Or was it?

Confused, he dug though the entire briefcase. No book. Nothing in the briefcase. No item of power in it.

The other men looked on as their boss emptied the entire briefcase, Finally, with a disgusted look on his face, he threw the briefcase onto the floor of the sedan, right next to the dead body.

"It's not in there." The man growled, anger creeping into his usaully well-mannered and polite voice. "He ripped us off."

"No." The man oppsosite him picked up the briefcase, inspecting it closely. "Look" He turned the briefcase upside down, showing the others.

There was a tear in the briefcase, small in width but long in length. A book could've easily slipped out via the tear without the owner knowing it.

There was a short silence. "Ah." The man in charge exhaled as he knitted his fingers together in disappointment. "The book must've fell out when he was on the way here."

"Should we search the town for it then?" Another man said in response.

"Yes." Their boss said, his voice now icy cold. "Search this town, turn it upside down, burn it down, whatever. I don't care. That book must not fall into another's hands."

"If it does?"

The lip of their boss curled as he reached out for the bottle of champagne and popped it open before pouring aout a generous amount into four of the wine glasses set out, ignoring the fifth. "Leave no witnesses, of course." He said softly before lifting the wine glass delicately to his lips and taking a sip.

By hook or by crook, the book would be in his hands.

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><p>"DON'T WANNA BE AN AMERICAN IDIOT!"<p>

The crashing of drums and the almost murderous way the two electric guitars were being strummed revebrated in Grace's ears, making her head vibrate slightly due to the sound waves being blasted out of the amplifiers hooked up to the guitars, She just shook it off and tucked a flyaway strand of sandy blonde hair behind her right ear as she sucked the tip of her pen, sighing in exasperation as she calculated glumly the costs the band had accumulated over the past few months.

"Two bent cymbals, countless broken strings, malfunctioning keys on the keyboard, song writer on writer's block..." Grace read out and groaned, her head throbbing. No-one in the room paid attention to her over the ruckus of the room and the ridiculously loud music blasting everyone's eardrums to kingdom come.

"DON'T WANT A NATION UNDER THE NEW MEDIA!"

Grace winced as the lead singer belted out the song while strumming her electric guitar with almost feverish energy. As Grace glanced around the room (it was more like a disaster zone in which a tornado had just touched down on), she noticed that some members of the band were still missing.

"Hey." Grace said hesitantly, trying to make herself heard. When no-one responded to her, she shouted. "HEY!" It was then only did the insane music stopped, and everyone in the room turned to stare at her.

"...what?" The lead singer who'd been playing the guitar said sourly, flicking her long black hair with green highlights in them over her shoulder offhandedly. "If it's about that guitar I broke last week in school..."

Grace rolled her eyes. "No, Akiko." she replied.

"Then what?" The short drummer with fiery red hair who'd been just a few seconds ago oblivious to everything except her drumset chirped in. "Is our budget over the limit?"

"Our budget is ALWAYS over the limit, Dominique." Grace said, rolling her eyes yet again.

"Then tell us, bro!" A tall girl with short and spiky brown hair and red highlights whooped and strummed a chord on her bass guitar. "If not, let's party, babe!"

"NO! NO PARTY!" Grace instantly screeched as her three friends high-fived each other and started playing the first few stanzas of Party Rock Anthem. "DON'T MAKE ME SWITCH OFF THE POWER FOR THE AMPS!"

"Spoilsport." Dominique pouted and stuck her tongue out at Grace as she shifted on her stool, twirling her drumsticks in her fingers.

As if on cue, the four of them turned to the last member in the room, who was hiding underneath a duvet on Grace's bed, her face scrunched up in concentration as she tapped the buttons on her Nintendo Dsi, her eyes fixed on the screen.

Nadia was the first one to speak up. "Uh, Leyan?" she said casually. "How's our new music sheet coming up?"

The girl called Leyan suddenly burst out of the duvet, springing onto the bed with her Nintendo Dsi in her hand as she yelled. "HAHA, take that, you sorry excuse of a Gym Leader! My Ninetales totally owned your sorry ass!" Her short, curly black hair was in a mess as she jumped up and down Grace's bed, making it creak a little too ominiouslly for Grace's liking. Leyan's glasses were also askewered as she continued yelling victory chants at the top of her lungs, knocking a small mirror from Grace's tableside in the process.

Akiko neatly caught the mirror when it was about an inch from smashing onto the wooden floor. "Leyan?" she said sweetly, even though anyone who knew her well could hear a dark undercurrent beneath her sugary voice. "Hello? Earth to Leyan in the Unova Region?"

"Bwah?" Leyan stopped mid-bounce, promptly crashing into Dominique on the drummer's stool, who in turn crashed into the drumset. "OW!"

"Hey! And ouch!" Dominique groaned and rubbed her sore backside.

"The new music sheet." Akiko said, the darker undercurrent in her voice becoming more obvious. Unbeknownst to her, Nadia and Grace slowly inched away. "Where is it? You said you were gonna give it to us by tonight, or we get to bring you to the swimming pool next week."

Leyan's eyes widened behind her glasses. "Eh." she muttered, not daring to look at Akiko. "Uh, can I give it to you tomorrow?"

"Hell no!" Akiko thundered as she grabbed Leyan by the collar of her shirt, ignoring her cry of ? "Eek!". "We need it by tonight! Or we won't have anything to hand in to the teachers for the qualifiers in the Talent Show!"

"Uhm, Akiko?" Nadia jerked her head towards a keyboard standing next to Dominique's drumset, attempting to divert Akiko's rage at poor Leyan "Andrea's still not here. We can't do much without her around, so why don't we go out first and-"

Akiko ignored Nadia. "Stop playing that stupid Nintendo thingy and get to work on the music sheets!" she roared directly into Leyan's ears. "Or I'll whack you twenty times with my guitar, then crash your head with one of Dominique's cymbals, _then_ strip you naked and throw you into a shark infested swimming pool!"

Leyan squealed in fright. Over in a corner, Nadia, Dominique and Grace couldn't help but shiver.

Nadia looked at her two companions, and silent agreement passed between them. They were not going to interrupt the Ice Queen (A.K.A Akiko) in her rant, no matter how much damage might be done to Leyan. It just wasn't worth having their eardrums broken by Akiko's yelling.

At that moment, thankfully for Leyan, the door of Grace's bedroom was flung open, causing everyone in the room to jump. Grace mentally groaned and pitied her poor, abused bedroom door.

"Hey there, fellow friends!" Two girls stood in the doorway. One was a tall, slender girl with waist-length pale blonde hair. Her blue eyes sparkled with mischief and glee. The other girl who was standing behind the tall girl was slightly shorter as she tried to peek over her shoulders, her hazel brown eyes peering with concern at the damage done unto her friend's room by her other more destructive friends. She has brownish black hair, which was also highlighted. Unlike Nadia and Akiko though, the highlight was purple.

"Jacey! And Andrea too!" Nadia boomed, chucking her guitar into Akiko's surprised hands as she ran forward to envelope the two newcomers in a bone-crushing hug. "We thought that the both of you were never coming! Did you guys get lost on the way here?"

"Nah." The tall slender girl, Jacey, laughed. "I was waiting for Andrea, who was running a little late 'cos she found something interesting about an hour ago." Jacey then nudged the silent Andrea. "Show it to 'em, Andrea!"

Grace sighed. "Before that, why don't the two of you put down your sleeping bags and other stuff down somewhere?"

Jacey and Andrea surveyed Grace's room. There were already four sleeping bags spread out on the floor, leaving not a single clear inch of the wooden floor below. Clothes, forgotton homework notes and music sheets lay strewn and scattered everywhere. Granted, Grace's room was quite large, but a drumset, guitars and amplifiers do tend to take up a lot of space. And not forgetting a keyboard either.

Jacey and Andrea then casually dumped their stuff on the only space they could find. Grace's bookshelf.

"My bookself..." Grace whimpered.

"Hey hey, guys!" Dominique crowed. She was back on her drummer's stool, waving her drumsticks to get attention. "Like, totally listen to this new drum solo I just worked out..."

"Hold it right there, Dom." Jacey said. "Andrea here has something really cool to show us!" She pointed to the forever silent Andrea, who was now taking one thing after the other from her duffel bag. Out came pocky, a handphone, more pocky, a towel, even more pocky...

All the girls in the room gathered around Andrea, trying to ignore the numerous packs of pocky that had came out of her bag. Their faces were all lighted up with anticipation. Grace too, despite her cynical attitude, couldn't help but feel slightly excited.. Maybe Andrea had found a sponsor for their band, or she'd gotten them some cash to use for their repair costs and other expenses...

So imagined everyone's reactions when Andrea withdrew a small, tattered looking leather book from her bag instead a cheque.

"Is that all?" Akiko and Nadia chorused together in disappointment.

Andrea held out the book, and Grace took it, flipping it open, Leyan and Dominique peering over her shoulders as she ran her fingers over the yellowed and dry pages of the book.

"Yean, I know, it's just a regular single line notebook" Jacey noted. "But I can't read the writing in it. It doesn't seems to be English, nor is it French or Spanish. I asked my dad, and it's not German either."

It was then as Jacey pointed it out that Grace noticed the faint, spidery-like writing on the pages of the book. And as Jacey had also pointed out, the words were not in any language she knew. Most of the pages in the book were filled up with the same mysterious words, and several pages eveb had a few splotches of dark red on them. Grace shuddered as she imagined what those splotches were.

"Hey, Andrea!" Dominique called out. "Where did you get that book from? A haunted house?" She cracked up at her own joke.

Andrea's face was still blank. "I found it on the walkway near my house when I was on the way to Jacey's house to meet her." She intoned gravely, as though she was proclaiming a wedding vow.

"Loosen up, man!" Nadia playfully nudged Andrea, whose serious expression didn't change at all. "I think that book is cool! Maybe we can sell it to some book collector junkie and get some cash in return."

Akiko, Dominique and Leyan had grabbed the book from Grace's hands and were now inspecting it closely, trying to make some sense out of it.

"Ok, I'm officially stumped." Dominique announced after a few minutes, running a hand through her fiery red hair. "I don't know anything that's written in the book. Maybe it's just Swahili, or Tagalog, or some gibberish language made up by a five year old kid."

"Five year old kids don't usually own expensive leather notebooks, Dominique," Akiko replied, turning the book over in her hands.

Leyan had gotten bored, and was now bouncing on Grace's bed. "I bet you all ten bucks that it's in secret code!" she cried out gleefully. "Or it's some ancient Pokemon language used a long, long time ago..."

"Po-ke-mon." Grace said slowly, hoping against hope that her message will get through to Leyan whose head seemed to be permanently in the clouds way above. "Do. Not. Exists."

"Na na na na na, can't hear you!" Leyan sang out, continuing her sadistic abuse of Grace's bed. She was then joined by Nadia and Jacey, who had both gotten bored of waiting for Akiko and Dominique to finish investigating the mysterious notebook. Very soon, all three were bouncing and jumping around on the bed, their hair, legs and arms flailing everywhere. Over at the drumset, Andrea has opened a packet of pocky.

"Don't know whether I mentioned it before, Grace, but your bed is an awesome trampoline!" Jacey giggled as she bounced around.

"Get off my bed, you idiots!" Grace yelled furiously, grabbing a stray pillow from the floor and throwing it at said idiots partying on her bed. "You're paying for my bed if you break it!"

They all ignored her (again). Nadia merely shifted her head a few inches and the pillow went flying past her. It hit the wall behind her with a dull 'fwomp'.

"Hey Andrea! Switch off the lights!" Leyan yelled in delight as she continued jumping up and down the bed. "We're gonna have a party now! Did anyone bring glowsticks?" she yelled out the last sentence to the entire room in general.

As irritated as Grace was, she couldn't help but feel slightly amused. "Glowsticks? For what?" she asked dryly.

"Geez, Grace, you're only sixteen, not an old codger!" Leyan said smugly. "Glowsticks are an absolute must for any party."

"I don't recall inviting you guys for a party. I only remembered calling you guys over for a sleepover." Grace shot back.

"Hey mate, sleepover equals party time." Nadia replied.

"No, sleepover equals practice time!" Grace argued.

"Your argument is invalid." came the blunt reply from Jacey.

"DISCO POGO!" someone in the room yelled. Grace suspected it was Leyan.

"Yeah, let's have some disco pogo!" Nadia crowed, shaking her hips at Grace mockingly.

"So first my bed was a trmpoline, now it's a dance floor." Grace said sarcastically. "Sure, why not?"

A sudden yelp from behind Grace caught her attention. She turned around (even though she knew that it was a bad idea turning her back on those three morons pratying their heart out) and saw Dominique, whom Grace had last seen together with Akiko pouring over the book, quivering with wide eyes underneath her sleeping bag. She was shaking all over her short frame, her mouth opening and closing like a goldfish.

"What's wrong, Dominique?" Grace asked, her eyebrows raised. From the corner of her eye, she could see Andrea muching contentedly on her second packet of pocky behind Dominique's drumset.

"Ga-T-Wh-That book is an evil curse book or something!" Dominique wailed. "There's some kinda evil voodoo witch symbol on the back page!"

"Chill, Dominique." Akiko snapped as she caressed the said symbol almost lovingly. "I think it's... fascinating, no?" Needless to say, everyone in the room knew that Akiko had an almost scary obsession with black magic, the occult and witches. She could spend an entire day lecturing her friends on that topic without running out of steam.

Grace glanced over at the book. As Dominique had pointed out, there was an odd symbol eteched into the last page of the book. It was round and had runes inscribed around it, complete with small arrows drawn into the sides. A small five-sided star symbol had been scratched into the centre, surrounded by a hexagon star with more runes inside it.

Somehow, just looking at it made a cold shiver run up Grace's spine.

"Hm..." Akiko continued stroking the symbol, peering keenly at it. "This is indeed intriguing. Why would a book like this have this sort of symbol on it?"

"Maybe 'cos it's evil!" Dominique squawked from her sleeping bag.

"Akiko." Grace said uneasily. "I know you really like supernatural stuff and magic, but that book is giving me the chills."

Dominique glared at Akiko accusingly. "See? I told you I wasn't the only one who felt that way!"

"Whatever." Akiko had to raise her voice over the whooping and cheering of Nadia, Jacey and Leyan (who'd all somehow managed to get glowsticks and were now dancing to Disco Pogo blaring out of Grace's iPod dock). "But I just don't get it. This is a symbol designed to restrain something, why is it in a book like this? Unless you want to keep something in the book and prevent it from coming out...?"

It was then, as music blared and the entire room degenerated into chaos, did Grace noticed that as Akiko talked, the symbol under her fingers was starting to glow, albeit a little faintly at first.

Grace's danger alarm bells in her head started ringing. "A-akiko...!" She cried out, lunging forwards towards her friend, who remained oblivious. "Throw that book away RIGHT NOW!"

"Wait...what? HNRGH?" Akiko grunted in surprise as Grace collided into her, causing her to loosen her grip on the book.

The book spun out of control and flew into the air. Even though there was no wind in the room, the pages of the book were flipping quickly, making a strange, dry rustling sound. Even as the book hung suspended in the air by some unknown force, the occult-like symbol on the back page glowed even brighter and brighter, blinding anyone who looked directly at it.

Leyan, Nadia and Jacey broke out of their party frenzy and looked up just in time to see the book suspended in the air, emitting flashes of light. Andrea closed her eyes and huddled behind the drumset. Dominique buried her head into her sleeping bag, not daring to look.

"What's going on h-" Akiko's words were drowned out as the symbol suddenly flashed a brilliant white, obscuring everything and blocking out any sounds.

All Grace could see at that moment was a pure, blinding whiteness, as if she was in Heaven. Distantly, she could hear screaming.

Someone was screaming. Someone was hurt.

More voices. There were people talking. They were murmuring softly, mumbling to themselves...

Grace blacked out.


End file.
